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I am very excited to announce that I have completely revised this course, adding lots of new exciting and updated content!
Please head on over to:
https://lookingatlight.weebly.com/
to check out all of the new stuff!
Update your bookmarks, and I'm looking forward to seeing you at the new site!
What is a Magic Sheet?
A Magic Sheet is the lighting designer's best friend. This is a graphical display of all of the lighting systems and specials used in a given production. The magic sheet includes channel numbers, color, direction and focus information.
This is all of the same information that is included on the light plot and the paperwork, but the magic sheet is typically collected all on the same page for quick reference during cueing. It becomes a valuable 'cheat sheet' for the designer to quickly find which channel performs which action. As light plots get bigger and bigger it becomes difficult for the designer to keep all of the different lights straight in the mind. Having a good magic sheet next to you is an extremely valuable tool for efficiency.
This is all of the same information that is included on the light plot and the paperwork, but the magic sheet is typically collected all on the same page for quick reference during cueing. It becomes a valuable 'cheat sheet' for the designer to quickly find which channel performs which action. As light plots get bigger and bigger it becomes difficult for the designer to keep all of the different lights straight in the mind. Having a good magic sheet next to you is an extremely valuable tool for efficiency.
This is an example of a relatively simple light plot. Let's look at two different versions of a magic sheet for this plot:
The magic sheet on the left is pretty easy to figure out. The arrows denote the direction and color of the light. The location of the symbol on the groundplan of the stage helps to show where the light will land on the stage.
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This magic sheet is what I call a "system-based" magic sheet. Instead of showing on a map where each of the lights is focused, it instead groups all of the different systems of light together. Each small grid represents the 'whole stage'. For the "Front Lav" system, down stage right is lit by channel 1, and up stage left is lit by channel 6. You can see this also on the graphical magic sheet by looking at these areas of the stage.
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The advantage to the graphical magic sheet is that it is very easy to understand and decipher. However, this is a very small lighting rig (only about 30 or so lights). Once the design gets much bigger, the number of arrows and symbols that wind up on your magic sheet quickly get very complicated and confusing. If you're unable to find the light that you're looking for, it doesn't do you much good. The system-based magic sheet allows you to have much larger lighting designs in the same general amount of space.
A much more complicated plot such as the one below for Reefer Madness is simplified significantly by the use of a system-based magic sheet:
A much more complicated plot such as the one below for Reefer Madness is simplified significantly by the use of a system-based magic sheet:
To help you understand how a system-based magic sheet works, here is a two-color high side light system coming from stage right. One is a 'daylight blue', and one is a very saturated pink. The grid represents the whole stage. Therefore, channel 201 brings up the blue light farthest down stage right. Channel 241 would bring up the pink in the same place on the stage. Similarly, 209 and 249 would bring up lights far stage left, 3/4 of the way upstage. The view below is set so that channel 201 and channel 249 are lighting the actors:
There are two other similar high side systems that come from the other direction- one in the same daylight blue and one in a saturated amber. Based on the magic sheet detail at the left, can you determine which channels control these two lights? (Mouse over the image for the answer)
Hybrid Magic Sheet
The advantage to the graphical style magic sheet is that it is easy to take a glance and to understand. The disadvantage is that it gets messy with larger rigs. This problem is solved by the systems-based magic sheet, but this is sometimes hard to connect to the physical environment. So the way to get the best of both of these worlds is to use a hybrid magic sheet, which is the direction that I usually lean. Here is an example of a hybrid style magic sheet:
By making the groundplans smaller, I am able to group all of the area lights on the upper left, and move the environmental and practicals to other groundplans. It is pretty easy to take a look at this and understand what's going on. Take some time looking at the magic sheet in detail and see if you could cue the show from this layout. There is a detailed explanation of this magic sheet in the examples gallery which you can see by clicking the button below.